The present invention relates generally to dispensers for individually dispensing sheets, and more particularly to a dispenser adapted for inclusion into a garment or the like.
The idea of placing pockets in a garment for holding items is old and very well known in the arts. Such pockets typically are merely open-topped receptacles which require the user to reach into and manually segregate the items contained in the pocket. While this arrangement works well in most instances, it is often desirable to allow the user ready access to a plurality of individual sheets. Sheets of this type are often used for cleaning, food handling or wrapping and are readily available in packages of folded sheets, which may be interleaved. The folded sheets are usually disposable and may be packaged in a small, flat box for dispensing therefrom or may be packaged without a dispenser, suitable for insertion into a dispenser.
In either case, to use such disposable sheets, the user must separately carry the sheets to the working area which is often an inconvenience. While the user may place a plurality of the folded sheets in a conventional pocket or other receptable to avoid carrying the sheets separately, the single sheet dispensing feature of the interlocking sheets is lost.
When the sheets are carried in a separate dispenser, the user must move the dispenser to the work area and is thus burdened by carrying the dispenser and locating it for ease of use. Often the user expends much time and energy to first move the dispenser to his work area and second to access the sheets therefrom. Additionally, when the dispenser is a paper box or other lightweight unit, when the user attempts to remove a single sheet from the dispenser often the entire dispenser moves requiring the user to hold the dispenser while removing a single sheet. This occurrence defeats most of the advantages of a single sheet dispenser. While this disadvantage can be overcome by using a heavy or weighted dispenser, this would further burden the user with the requirement of moving the heavy dispenser to the work area.
Some attempts have been made to provide an easy-to-carry dispenser so that the user may have sheets readily accessible. Most of these are directed to a narrowly-defined apparatus and application such as cosmetology and cannot be used in a general purpose application. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,087,181, issued Nov. 18, 1935, discloses a dispenser for dispensing papers used when applying a permanent wave to hair. The dispenser includes a resilient clamp for attachment to a hair roller. While this device does move a dispenser into the work area, the dispenser still must be manually placed and moved. The dispenser also is not adaptable for use with general purpose sheets of larger sizes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,185,753, issued Jan. 29, 1980, discloses a triangular dispenser attachable to a wrist bracelet for dispensing papers used in applying permanent wave to hair. While the wrist attachment does make the apparatus more portable, it must be carefully located on the wrist to be readily accessible without becoming burdensome or getting in the way. Again, this device is not readily adaptable for use with larger sized sheets and when sufficiently increased in size would become a substantial burden to carry about the workplace.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,401,223, issued Aug. 30, 1983, discloses another sheet dispenser attachable to the user's wrist for dispensing papers used in applying permanent wave to hair. The device again suffers the disadvantages inherent to wrist attachment of limiting the placement of the hand it is attached to, requiring the movement of both hands to dispense a paper, and not being adaptable for use with larger sheets.